(La version française suit) I had an amazing week at the Atelier Jacques Lajeunesse! I am really glad I went to learn this other painting technique, it will really help me out for the series I am working on. This is the not-yet-finished-study that I did over there. J’ai passé une incroyable semaine aux Ateliers Jacques Lajeunesse. Je suis vraiment heureuse d’avoir appris cette autre technique ancienne de peinture, puisqu’elle me servira véritablement pour l’élaboration de la série de toiles sur laquelle je travaille présentement. Voici une photo de mon étude non terminée.

(La version française suit) I am very excited as I am leaving next week for an intensive week long summer class on another painting technique called “grisaille” with my favorite art teacher, Jacques Lajeunesse. “Grisaille is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles in fact include a slightly wider colour range. A grisaille may be executed for its own sake, as underpainting for an oil painting (in preparation for glazing layers of colour over it), or as a model for an engraver to work from. “Rubens and his school sometimes use monochrome techniques in sketching compositions for engravers.”[2] Full colouring of a subject makes many more demands of an artist, and working in grisaille was often chosen as being quicker and cheaper, although the effect was sometimes deliberately chosen for aesthetic reasons. Grisaille paintings resemble the drawings, normally in monochrome, that artists from the Renaissance on were trained to produce; like drawings they can also betray the hand of a less talented assistant more easily than a fully …

About Marie H. Sirois

MARIE H. SIROIS is a painter working on a colossal project, called The Schumann + Wieck Symphony, about German composer Robert Schumann and his wife, virtuoso pianist Clara Wieck. Exhibiting one visual movement every 4 years, this project will take her 16 years to make from beginning till end.

Quote

"To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist."

Robert Schumann

The Schumann + Wieck Symphony

Marie H. Sirois’ Schumann and Wieck’s Symphony, which allies painting and music, is a celebration of Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck’s life and works and is an illustration of art’s richness and interactivity.

Notorious German composer, Robert Schumann and his wife, virtuoso pianist Clara Wieck, lived a complex and passionate love affair. Their relationship is the foundation for four series of paintings through which are represented, as a symphony in four movements, the transformation of the couple’s feelings with the important events that shaped their relationship.

Schumann’s music holds a crucial place in the project. Each visual movement is associated with and inspired by one of his musical scores. The night of the opening shows, Marie interprets these musical pieces on the piano.

The First Movement, Le Prélude, was introduced in November 2014. Marie is now working on the Second Movement, Concert sans orchestre.